Research On Xizhou Household Registration Documents In The Early Tang Dynasty (640-755)

Xizhou household register documents in Tang Dynasty are an important category in Turpan documents,which not only provide with valuable materials for the research of Turpan history,but also are the basic data in researching Tang Dynasty's land system,tax and household registration system.Up till now the academic field has produced few written results in study of Xizhou household register documents and other related issues.Centering on Xizhou household register documents,the author discussed household register's structure and management system,the phenomenon of Heji and female-headed households.Household registration administration system was related closely to the systems of Juntianzhi and Zuyongdiaozhi in the early Tang Dynasty.According to household registration manuscripts' basic format from Turpan Documents and The research of Turpan Documents gained by Stein,the study is aimed at discussing household register's structure and format in the early Tang Dynasty.Besides,by combing out some household register documents from Turpan regions in detail,it is thought that household register administration was very strict in the early Tang Dynasty,which reflected mainly in householder's gender,family members' ages and identities,family's class and the amounts of fields given by the local government.So the study reveals that the main purpose of strengthening household registration administration was to implement conveniently the system of Zuyongdiaozhi in the early Tang Dynasty.According to families' residence information registered in Xizhou household register documents,the paper considers that the head of a household was a special family member.Firstly,the head of a household had duties to apply for Shoushi and pay taxes.Secondly,gender was the first principle of official to determine the head of a household.Thirdly,comparing with other members in the interior,householder needed to be raised two characters in writing format.In addition,for the adult female head of a household,it usually marked two characters of "Danv" before their names,which was one of the regional characteristics in Xizhou household register documents.At present the academic field has produced several different opinions on family structure model of children and their parents registered in a same household register in the early Tang Dynasty because of the lack of historical data.In Xizhou Documents,this is a general phenomenon.It is because this family structure model not only accorded with the relevant regulations of filial piety,but also was more convenient for levying taxes and corvee,therefore the government advocated strongly that children and their parents should be registered in a same household register and live together.So it was also a main family structure type in the early Tang Dynasty.In the aspect of family structure,some widows were also registered in other male household register in the early Tang Dynasty.This kind of phenomenon is common in Turpan Documents.As to the causes on this phenomenon,on the one hand,because farmers' fields given by government were insufficiency in the whole country;On the other hand,in the case of the widow as a householder,they should be given many more fields,and they didn't need to undertake taxes and corvee."Heji" could reduce the amount of farmland which widows should be given,and had no effect on the country's tax and corvee.So some single widows' names were often registered in male household register in the early Tang Dynasty.According to the amount of farmland registered in Xizhou household register documents,the paper argues that Xizhou area fully implemented the system of Juntianzhi.But during the concrete implementation process,Xizhou area differed from Dunhuang greatly.These differences mainly reflected in four aspects,which were the authentic amounts of fields that farmers were given,the area of the house and garden for living,the four directions and types of fields.The differences between Xizhou and Dunhuang regions also indicated clearly that there were the shortage of water resources and arable farmlands in Turpan area in Tang Dynasty.On the basis of the amount of taxes registered in Xizhou household register documents,the paper explains that Xizhou area's tax policy was more special.Currently the academic field has several views on "Zu six Dou(????)”.In this paper,combining with the standard amounts of fields given in Dunhuang and Xizhou regions and related historical materials,the author puts forward a new opinion on "Zu six Dou(????)".The author considers that "Zu two Dan(???)" and "Zu six Dou(???)”were associated with different standard amounts of given fields.Because the standard amount of given farmland was six Mu in Xizhou region,the amount of paid taxes was six Dou.It should be pointed out that,Xizhou region's female-headed households are also an important part to be researched in the paper.Although the number of these documents is few,they are also very important to the whole study of social status in the early Tang Dynasty.Being different from male householders,female householders had their own features,and female-headed households were a special social group in the early Tang Dynasty,especially in family structure,family's class,taxes and the given land.It is thought that Xizhou region's female-headed households were helpful not only to understand the whole situation and true aspects of Tang Dynasty's society,but also to fill some gaps of historical documents.Xizhou household register documents reappeared Turpan region's history aspects in Tang Dynasty,and were the epitome of Tang Dynasty social conditions,which fully reflected Tang Dynasty's political system,land system,tax system,household registration and law system having been carried out in Turpan region,and it also suggested that Turpan region was a local administrative region which was under the territorial jurisdiction by Tang Dynasty directly.